e seventy-five
thousandth part of it; and, as Prof. S. W. Johnson once remarked, "It
is certain that a healthy nose is not far inferior in delicacy to litmus
paper." I feel sure that no ammonia escapes from this horse-manure after
it is trampled down by the pigs, although it contains an additional
quantity of "potential ammonia" from the liquid and solid droppings of
these animals.

Water has a strong attraction for ammonia. One gallon of ice-cold water
will absorb 1,150 gallons of ammonia.

If the manure, therefore, is moderately moist, the ammonia is not likely
to escape. Furthermore, as Dr. Voelcker has shown us, during the
fermentation of the manure in a heap, ulmic and humic, crenic and
apocrenic acids are produced, and these unite with the ammonia and "fix"
it--in other words, they change it from a volatile gas into a
non-volatile salt.

If the heap of manure, therefore, is moist enough and large enough, all
the evidence goes to show, that there is little or no loss of ammonia.
If the centre of the heap gets so hot and so dry that the ammonia is not
retained, there is still no necessity for loss.

The sides of the heap are cool and moist, and will retain the carbonate
of ammonia, the acids mentioned also coming into play.

The ammonia is much more likely to escape from the top of the heap than
from the sides. The heat and steam form little chimneys, and when a
fermenting manure-heap is covered with snow, these little chimneys are
readily seen. If you think the manure is fermenting too rapidly, and
that the ammonia is escaping, trample the manure down firmly about the
chimneys, thus closing them up, and if need be, or if convenient, throw
more manure on top, or throw on a few pailfuls of water.

It is a good plan, too, where convenient, to cover the heap with soil.
I sometimes do this when piling manure in the field, not from fear of
losing ammonia, but in order to retain moisture in the heap. With proper
precautions, I think we may safely dismiss the idea of any serious loss
of ammonia from fermenting manure.

THE WASTE OF MANURE FROM LEACHING.

As we have endeavored to show, there is little danger of losing ammonia
by keeping and fermenting manure. But this is not the only question to
be considered. We have seen that in 10,000 lbs. of fresh farm-yard
manure, there is about 64 lbs. of nitrogen. Of this, about 15 lbs. are
soluble, and 49 lbs. insoluble. Of mineral matter, we have in this
quantity of man